Day number two of butts and guts is here!
Just a quick reminder: We’re all on different parts of our journey here. There are some people that are more advanced, some people that are working their way through fitness, and some that are just beginning. Me personally, I am working my way back after recently being diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and having to take a backseat with my workouts with medication, and all that fun stuff.
So now it’s time for today’s workout. Here we go!
Now here’s the key. You’re going to do the exercises that you did on Day 1 with the exercises that I’m about to show you to make a little bit of a longer workout. So you’re still going to do the exercises you did on Day 1, but you’re just going to add these four 😉
Plie Squat
So the first one is a plie squat. So a regular squat is where you turn your toes out slightly. In a plie squat, we want to take them out to about a 45-degree angle. For those of you that may be dancers, think of a plie. It’s also called a sumo squat in the fitness industry. But I still like to call it a plie squat, because that’s really what you’re doing.
Your feet are out wider than your hips, they’re at a 45-degree angle. This is actually harder than a regular squat, because as you start to come down the tendency is the weight is either going to go forward, or it’s going to start to go back, and your knees are going to start to cave in. So I always like to say imagine yourself just sliding down a wall.
So you’re coming down, and up. Down, and up. So yes, you’re going to get a little bit of your inner thigh stabilizers, outer thigh and those gluteal medial muscles are really going to engage, and really focus in on squeezing those glutes in on the way up. So down and up. Again, shoulder blades back, down, away from those ears, chest lifted. Abs, remember to engage the core!
Lunges
Now the second exercise is going to be lunges. I’m going to start on the ground down. So here’s the perfect position. If you were to get down and sit your legs at what I call 90/90, and tuck that back toe under, and then just lift yourself up. That’s your lunge position. Now the weight is predominantly in that front heel, and you’re going straight down, straight up. Now yes, your knee is going to track a little bit forward, but we don’t want it going there. That’s not a lunge.
It’s like you’re going down to pick something up off the ground, and then slowly coming up. The idea is that both knees are bending, so that back leg bends as well. You will really feel this on both sides as you come down, and you come up.
Alternate Elbow To Knee
So those are your two butt exercises. Now I’m going to go all the way down to the floor for your guts. So the first one is alternate elbow to knee, also known as the bicycle.
You’re going to put your hands alongside your ears. You’re going to come on up, and bring your knees up over your hips. Now you don’t want to bring those legs too far forward. We’re going to keep them here. Then you’re going to rotate, pull in, rotate, pull in. Keep your shoulder and elbow in line. In other words, you don’t want to pull this forward. This isn’t what we’re looking for, we’re looking for chest open and rotation.
Now if you have back issues, you can start by alternating and lifting one leg up off the floor at a time. If you’re more advanced, you can really isolate. You can even really twist going side to side.
Crunches
Then the last one today is your crunch. Slowly come on up, and then bring it down. Slowly come on up, bring it down. Now either chin all the way in, which I don’t particularly like, but it does help take the pressure off the neck, or space, like there’s a tennis ball here, and then slowly down. You’re engaging from your abdominals.
So you’ve got four exercises added to yesterday’s exercise. So with the plie squats you’re going to do 30. Your lunges are 20 per side. Alternating elbow to knee, or bicycle, are 30. Side to side, so right, left is one. Then crunches you have 30.
Keep up the great work and keep the comments coming!
xoxo
Jill Ciment | LIVE YOUR BEST LIFE 